


Take Care of Me

by LeoOtherLands



Series: Woo Me [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alpha Hatake Kakashi, Alpha/Beta, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Because I NEVER get to use that tag!, Beta Umino Iruka, Comfort No Hurt, Iruka is a little clueless, Kakashi is a good Alpha, M/M, Never leave me alone with a pen and paper when I'm bored at work, POV Umino Iruka, This is what happens, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 17:54:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21060764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoOtherLands/pseuds/LeoOtherLands
Summary: Iruka catches a cold and Kakashi cooks him dinner. That about sums it up.





	Take Care of Me

**Author's Note:**

> This happened for three reasons. Reason one, I'm kinda, sorta half-way sick, and definitely have to admit, no one is going to take care of me. "crys" Reason two, I got bored at work, and my other WIPs were not available, so here we are. Reason three, I am reading [decaf_kitty's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/decaf_kitty/pseuds/decaf_kitty) Any Alpha Would, and I'm very interested in the fact there isn't a lot of beta love. I intend to create more beta love, and this is my first attempt. Enjoy!

Being a beta had lots of upsides and downsides, all at once. I’d realized that at thirteen, shortly after presenting. While most of my agemates were showing the first signs of pending heats and ruts and going wild, scenting anyone of the opposite reproductive gender who would allow it, I was just looking on, wondering what all the fuss was about. _Everyone_ smelled good, _everyone_ was attractive, and I didn’t have to go mad about the fact.

That was the first upside to being a beta, of course. No heats, no ruts, no time in my life where I _had to_ have sex or I’d lose my mind, unless I was on some kind of suppressor pill. No incessant, annoying urge to go find a mate _right now_, either. I could be okay on my own.

A downside to being a beta, on the other hand, was the fact you could hardly find anything decent to read that in some form didn’t feature some alpha and some omega getting together or getting it on. It wasn’t that the romances weren’t sweet, or the porn wasn’t bloody good, but how many times could you read about alphas and omegas without getting bored?

It felt like the only time betas were mentioned in stories was when an alpha went into rut and there wasn’t an omega around, or if an omega went into heat and there wasn’t an alpha around, leaving the beta to “do their duty.” Do their duty? Honestly?! Sometimes I wondered if the other genders realized betas had relationships and sex too.

Like rabbits. We fucked like rabbits, but you never saw anyone writing about _that_. But, in all reality, when you were attracted to everything and never had to worry about getting pregnant or impregnating anyone, why wouldn’t you fuck every opportunity you got? I’d had more interesting sex with other betas than the hottest heat/rut _Icha, Icha_ I’d ever read.

Despite these facts, though, most of the time I felt as a beta, I was only seen as “that comforting individual,” capable of taking care of those around him. The ever reliable Iruka-_sensei_. I understood the why of this. After all, when you could interact with anyone and be mostly, not _entirely_, but mostly unaffected by their pheromones, you started to be seen as a pretty comforting person.

I didn’t _mind_ that. I could be easy friends with anyone, and I had the instincts to know just what they needed most and how to take care of them. But, damn, did the other genders need _a lot_ of looking after. Especially, right after presentation, when everything was a new, intense tangle, and the kids were still too young to follow instincts and have sex.

My pre-_genin_ were a _mess_. Every day felt like an exercise in KEEP THE ALPHAS AWAY FROM THE OMEGAS, AND, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THE _KAMI_ AND THE SAGE, MAKE SURE THERE ARE ENOUGH BETAS SPREAD THROUGH BOTH GROUPS! And nights at the mission’s desk were sometimes hardly better. One would think adults would handle hormones and the natural courses of life better, but I was constantly surprised by the number of omegas and alphas alike who needed a comfortable beta’s shoulder to cry on.

I _didn’t_ mind it. I _understood_ if. But, sometimes, it was overwhelming. Sometimes it would be nice for someone to return the favor.

Especially, at those times when you felt an itch in the back of your throat, when you had a tickle in your nose and an ache in your joints, and all you could think was, _Dam it, I don’t have time to be sick!_

Not that my body ever listened to me when I informed it we had too much to do. The first sign I was catching a cold, I started wearing thicker clothes, doing everything I could to stay warm, drinking tea, until I felt I was drowning in it, eating soups, and generally doing everything I could to ward off the sickness. To no avail. Three days later, my head throbbed like a mother fucker, I could barely hear, talking hurt, and breathing was a chore. But I still pried myself out of bed in the morning, to head to the Academy because, as I kept reminding myself, no one was going to take care of me.

The day was nightmarish and rather dreamlike, at once. I knew I wasn’t dying, but, damn, did it feel like it. My body suffered near continuous hot and cold flashes. My nose was red and chapped from the amount of tissues I had to use because the thing wouldn’t stop _running_, despite the fact it was perpetually _clogged_. And I coughed so hard and often, my fellow instructors began to question if I was going to expel a lung. I assured them I was not, I was fine, and kept moving. Or, tried to. No matter what I did, it felt like I was moving exceptionally slowly. Like I was wading through a padded mud.

Sometimes I thought having a cold was the worst punishment ever. There was nothing really _wrong_ with you, but you couldn’t even sleep, you felt so awful.

I barely noticed Kakashi Hatake popping into the Academy to ask me about something or other. I just answered his questions and waved him away, to catch an alpha chasing a fellow beta, who was obviously becoming annoyed with the alpha’s attentions. From personal experience, I knew the beta was about to deck the alpha, and I really didn’t want to deal with a squealing pup with a bloodied nose, right then.

Thoughts of Kakashi vanished with his presence, and I didn’t consider him again, until after I got home. Released from work, I trudged home to the sinking realization I still had to feed myself, which entailed having to do yesterday’s dishes and cooking.

An unpleasant prospect.

I’d just managed to peel off my work clothes, dress myself in loose pants and a baggy sweater, and start the steamy dishwater, when a knock sounded on my door. I groaned, wondering who that could possibly be. I didn’t have a shift at the mission’s desk and had no intention of doing _anything_.

Given my mood, I jerked open my door a bit harder than I normally would. “What?!”

“Iruka.”

I stared. Kakashi Hatake on my doorstep was an uncommon thing. We knew each other casually, of course. Hells, I’d even been his comforting beta a time of two. Once, after a particularly bad mission, where he’d got cut up and scared badly, he’d even let me cuddle him, until he could stop shaking and sleep. But that shit was normal for a beta and did nothing to explain why the man was outside my door. Scrambling mentally, I tried to recall what he’d asked me about earlier, but I just couldn’t remember, leaving me to blankly let out, “Kakashi?”

“Mind if I come in?” he asked, shouldering past me, as though I’d invited him in.

Squawking annoyance I followed him to my kitchen, to find him depositing the paper sacks he carried on my table and turning off my still running water. “What are you doing here, Hatake?!” I demanded.

“You’re sick.” He said that with that maddening serenity of his. His eye calm and appraising, and his hands jammed in his pockets.

“I should think that would be obvious,” I said, crossing my arms in defiance of him and his outright change of subject.

“Why were you at work?”

“Because we’re short a couple of instructors. Someone had to be there.”

“And that someone had to be you?”

“What are you doing here, Hatake?!” I snarled at him. _Gods! Alphas were so annoying!_

“I’m cooking you dinner.”

My hands fell to my sides and my jaw came unhinged. By the time I recovered myself, Kakashi was rummaging in the sacks he’d brought with him. “You’re- Why?!”

“Because watching you chase that pup earlier made _me_ tired. I can’t imagine how _you_ feel. Go lay down, Iruka. I’ll take care of this.”

“I can do it myself!”

“Go. Lay down!” The words were punctuated with strong alpha command scent, as he plunged his hands in _my_ dishwater and stared over his shoulder at me.

I glowered back at him, wrinkling my nose. “I’m a beta, Kakashi. That shit doesn’t work on me.” Aside from smelling uncomfortably bad…

“Well, hopefully common sense does. Go lay down. Or, are you really going to make an issue of this?”

Deciding I could either make an issue of it, and send him packing, or give in and let it be, I stood there a moment. In the end, the fact I really didn’t have the energy to make an issue of it, had me turning and grumbling, as I made my way to the living room.

I curled up on my couch with a blanket and a cold cup of tea from the night before, and found myself dozing there when Kakashi came in, sometime later, carrying a tray of _miso_ soup, broiled fish, and fresh tea. He set the tray on my _kotatsu_, then snuggled into the blanket with me, making me scowl. “What are you doing now?”

“Feeding you.”

This irritated me unreasonably. “Do I look like an omega in heat to you? I can do it myself.”

“You look like a man, who’s not given himself time to rest,” he said, poking my lips with the chopsticks. “Open up.”

“I hate you.”

He shrugged. “Lots of people do. Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some food you didn’t cook.”

His expression was droll and quite stubborn, and I just didn’t have motivation to put up more of a fuss. So, I sat and let him feed me, frowning and snapping at him all the while.

Finished with the food, he pulled me unto his chest and commanded, “Sleep.”

“You’re an annoying alpha,” I grunted, twisting my head to look up at him.

“Well, you’re being a bratty beta. And, surprisingly resistant for a sick man.”

I grumbled something low and indistinguishable, then, “I just don’t get why you’re being nice to me.”

“Meh, that so?”

Before I knew what to do, he pulled down his mask and brushed his lips over mine. It was a shock, but only irritated me more. “I _am not_ an omega, Kakashi. Kissing me won’t make me feel better.”

“I’m not trying to sooth you, Iruka.”

“Then I don’t know why you did it.”

“Why does a man normally kiss another man?”

My forehead crinkled. Then smoothed out, my heart giving a painful beat. “Oh.”

He ran a finger down my lips. “I like you, Iruka.”

“Oh.” My head was whirling. Desperately, my mind was turning over every time he’d shown up at the Academy to ask me about something random. Every time he’d lingered around the mission’s desk to talk to me. The fact he _had_ let me comfort him as a beta, after the mission where he’d been hurt…

“But I’m not an omega. I’m a beta.”

“Yeah. I’m clear on that.”

“I can’t bond you or give you pups.”

He sighed. “Stop comparing yourself to an omega, Iruka. Do I look like I’m looking for a pack of pups?”

“I don’t know what you’re looking for, Hatake.” I’d _heard_ there were some alphas and omegas who mated betas, but I’d never met one.

A chuckle rumbled in the chest under me and his arms tightened around me. “I’ve got it right here.”

I felt myself flushing, but also… oddly relaxing. “Well, I’m not about to have wild sex with you.”

Another chuckle. “I haven’t even asked you to dinner yet. Maybe some other time.”

Calming alpha scent began to permeate the air. I sighed, leaning my head back against him. “That only has a slight affect on me, you know. It doesn’t make me go all placid and shit.”

“But it is nice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, closing my eyes. For the first time since acquiring the damn cold, I thought I could sleep.

“Good. Because I intend to woo you, Iruka. Until you do want to have wild sex with me.”

“Sure,” I murmured, cheek pressed to his chest. “But first…”

“Yes?”

“Take care of me.”

“With pleasure.”

**Author's Note:**

> This salty ball of angst and glitter is an original fiction author and fan fiction writer, who literally lives for comments and reader interaction. Even if this is nothing but inarticulate vowel screams, lol. He exist on a flotilla of social media, separated into a wide array writery things.
> 
> If you are crazy enough to want to see what I'm writing on any given day, and maybe try tempting me into writing something specific, feel free to join me in my personal writing Discord [Midway](https://discord.gg/jsQw96p), or friend me on Discord at LeoOtherland#7066 if you would rather chat one on one.
> 
> On Facebook I can be located on my [author page](https://www.facebook.com/LeoOtherland/) for all things original fiction, or in the [AO3 Armada group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/601270063618951) for all things fan fiction.
> 
> On [Twitter](https://twitter.com/RoseOfOtherLand) or [Tumbler](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/leootherlands) I primarily run with the fan fiction crowd and I seldom post and/or tweet anything, but if you want to drop me a line, I am always up for a chat.


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